“In Manchester or Liverpool this might feel normal, but in London it almost feels taboo”

Ping pong tables in public spaces

It must be summer in the city because people are doing any- and everything outside—eating meals, sunbathing (even though it’s not quite warm enough) and, as can be seen in these photographs, ping pong. Maybe it’s because I wasn’t looking for them earlier, but I just didn’t see them before. They are now, it seems, everywhere.

This, I found out, is simply my impression. Ping pong tables in public spaces is not a new development in London. As early as 2012, the Guardian ran a piece about the reclamation of public space with ping pong tables and pianos as examples. In it, the organization Ping! England, which is all about providing public ping pong tables in “unexpected places on the streets of towns and cities all over England,” is mentioned. As part of Table Tennis England, Ping! England seems to bill itself as part of the movement toward creating “active environments.”

Tables in public spaces significantly help engage large numbers of people into playing and supports specific locations/communities, particularly inner city or rural communities with limited access to spaces to play or other sport/physical activity facilities.

In addition, there are arguments that ping pong tables are conversation starters and build a sense of community, especially in a city like London. As the author of the Guardian piece writes:

Something odd was happening during that encounter last week. I was having a conversation with people I didn't know. In Manchester or Liverpool this might feel normal, but in London it almost feels taboo.

It certainly seems to be working. The Ping! table at King's Cross in London regularly has little groups around it waiting their turn, and I started a fiercely competitive, if completely inexpert, game. Despite fears the pianos would be vandalised and table-tennis bats and balls stolen, this has not been a problem.

These ping pong tables are thus reminders that “our squares and streets are places of communication, interaction and leisure is no bad thing.”

This isn’t limited to England. It seems to have extended to New York as well. Bryant Park also hosts tables (just two and I can understand why since I’m not sure the vandalism matter would be the same in New York as it is in London), which hosts pickup ping-pong games. These tables, according to The New York Times, attract a “democratizing mash-up of cultures and incomes.”

Within a couple hours on one afternoon, the tables attracted a shirtless actor, an employee of a Japanese bookstore on his lunch break, a retiree in sandals, a doctoral student, a mother with a napping child in a stroller, and the brother of the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks.

All this talk of democracy is especially interesting when thinking about the history of table tennis. Table tennis began as a parlor game in the United Kingdom among the middle and upper classes. These and other tabletop versions of games like cricket, football and tennis were popular with the leisure classes. It started with stringed rackets, a rubber ball, and a wooden fence.

It was a success in China, and it became the national sport quickly. There is a strange myth that persists, which is no doubt racist in origin, that “ping pong” is Chinese. It was actually coined by an English company, which then sold the rights to Parker Brothers at the turn of the 20^th century. Later on, when the game became popular, other companies began to use “table tennis,” which is what the sport is officially called in the country.

It is because ping pong is known as such in English that it is “Pīngpāng qiú” in Mandarin. Ping pong’s rise to prominence came after the Revolution in 1949. According to historians, tennis became popular as a result of a top-down political decision. Ping pong was especially popular with Mao and Zhou Enlai. They needed a sport to display the strength of the newly formed People’s Republic. Ping pong was the way to do this for this new country that had a large population that it needed to take care of. First of all, it was cheap. It needed just a bit of space, a flat surface, two small paddles and a ball. In addition, the barrier to entry in terms of physical stature was low. One did not need to have a big build. People of all sizes and ages could play. ( A study of 164 South Korean women age 60 and above showed that ping pong can improve cognitive function more than dancing, walking, gymnastics or resistance training.) Liang Geliang, former world champion and currently a professor at Peking University, said it this way:

It was a perfect sport for the Chinese physique. It is not important if you're strong. You have got to be smart and you've got to have good nerves

Moreover, other countries were not playing the sport. There wasn’t a global powerhouse yet.

And indeed, since the 1970s, when one thinks about ping pong, one thinks China. There is even the famous 1971 photograph of “ping pong diplomacy” taken in Japan at the World Table Tennis Championships where the young American player Glenn Cowan caught a ride with the Chinese table tennis team on a shuttle. As others ignored him, Zhuan Zedong greeted him and gave him a gift. This interaction supposedly gave Mao the idea to invite the US table tennis team to China.

China has won the overwhelming majority of golds in the Olympics since 1988, when table tennis was first included. What has underpinned this dominance is the academy system where a child can be expected to play six to eight hours a day every day. The most elite do not receive a formal education beyond ten years old.

China’s utter supremacy in ping pong has resulted in hand wringing, most of which is directed at competitive balance rather than accusations of child abuse. Chinese players have recently been taking up citizenship abroad to join other national teams. China has also hosted Western players as well. One of them, Bettine Vriesekoop, the Dutch two-time European champion, told a journalist that she first came to China to see what the secret was.

Well, there was really no secret. They have a very simple and practical way of training. They do three or four basic exercises, and then they play until they learn to play without making mistakes.

While China’s academy system is undoubtedly aggressive, the secret was nothing more than the cliché that is far from a secret: practice makes perfect. There were no ancient Asian secrets to uncover.

References

Beech, Hannah. “‘The Sport of Love’: Ping-Pong, the Great Equalizer.” The New York Times, April 6, 2022, sec. Sports. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/06/sports/ping-pong-wally-green.html.

Bethea, Charles. “Will Shortz and the Ping-Pong Prodigy.” The New Yorker, November 2, 2015. https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/will-shortz-and-the-ping-pong-prodigy.

Franklin, Nancy. “Back to the Basement.” The New Yorker, February 9, 2003. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/02/17/back-to-the-basement.

Khaleeli, Homa. “Reclaiming Public Spaces with Ping Pong and Pianos.” The Guardian, August 16, 2012, sec. Opinion. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/aug/16/reclaim-public-space-ping-pong-piano.

Li, Zhenyu. “Table Tennis in China Part I: King of the Table.” Bleacher Report (blog), July 27, 2012. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1274878-table-tennis-in-china-part-i-king-of-the-table.

Lubin, Gus. “Why China Is so Staggeringly Good at Table Tennis.” Business Insider (blog), August 19, 2016. https://www.businessinsider.com/why-china-is-so-good-at-table-tennis-2016-8.

Magazine, Smithsonian, and Marina Koren. “B.F. Skinner: The Man Who Taught Pigeons to Play Ping-Pong and Rats to Pull Levers.” Smithsonian Magazine. Accessed July 23, 2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/bf-skinner-the-man-who-taught-pigeons-to-play-ping-pong-and-rats-to-pull-levers-5363946/.

Marston, Celeste Katz. “Once a Tool for Diplomacy, Table Tennis Now Viewed by China as so Much More.” NBC News (blog), August 6, 2021. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/tool-diplomacy-table-tennis-now-viewed-china-much-rcna1601.

Munno, Álvaro. “The History of Table Tennis - A Global Sport • Racket Insight,” April 9, 2022. https://racketinsight.com/table-tennis/history-of-table-tennis/.

Sunshine, Wendy Lyons. “Ping-Pong as the Fountain of Youth.” The New York Times, March 7, 2017, sec. Well. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/well/move/ping-pong-as-the-fountain-of-youth.html.

Table Tennis England. “Tables in Public Spaces.” Accessed July 25, 2023. https://www.tabletennisengland.co.uk/ping-partner-support-and-resources/tables-in-public-spaces/.